Soccer, Volleyball Continue State Tournament Runs

For the Golden Hawks and Crusaders, the post season is beginning to come a close.

Cross Country

At the state sectional championships, both River Dell's Stefan Schuster (20th, 17:21) and Emily Croonquist (13th, 21:10) finished out of the North 1 Group 2 competition to advance.

Bergen Catholic will compete at the Non-Public A Group Championships in Holmdel as a team and Mike Whalen will seek an individual title.

Soccer

The 10th seeded River Dell Golden Hawks are the highest ranked team still in contention for a North 1 Group 3 title after advancing to Friday's semifinal match with Morris Hills. The Hawks, who last had a succesful postseason in 2008 when they claimed the North 1 Group 2 sectional title, defeated Wayne Hills in penalty kicks following a double overtime 1-1 tie. River Dell went 4-3 in penalty kicks while Brett Lubben provided the equalizer in the second half to force overtime.

The third seeded Lady Hawks downed Morris Hills 2-0 earlier in the week behind Brigid Tracy and Frankier Maier to set up Friday's semifinal date with Ramapo.

Bergen Catholic also had a semifinal date on Friday with top-seeded Delbarton after defeating Seton Hall Prep, 2-0. Held scoreless until the second half, the Crusaders netted two goals in the final 12 minutes to advance courtesy of Thomas Hogue and Travis Nitti. BC held its final regular season game this week against St. Joseph of Montvale after several postponements and was victorious 8-2. Erick Alonso led the way with a hat trick while Shaya Behboodi, Richard Finizio, Alexander Lorenzo, Travis Nitti and Gerard Quinn rounded out the score. BC netted 6 goals in the first half.

Volleyball

River Dell consecutively beat Red Bank (25-15, 25-21) and Ridgefield Park (25-9, 27-25) in the North Group 2 tournament prior to its Friday afternoon semifinal date with Sterling. The top-seeded Lady Hawks have been led by Mary Maccabee's 20 kills, Kalette demarrais' 30 assists and Sarah Recanati's 17 digs.

Football

River Dell's perfect record remained intact prior to heading into the postseason as the Golden Hawks squeeked past Fort Lee 36-35 as the squad was continually harrased by the Bridgemen. Facing a tie late in the final quarter, Brian Wopelhorst ran six yards to set up Anthony Nastasi for a two-point conversion run and the win. Wopelhorst previously gave the Hawks a 14-7 lead in the second quarter on an 8-yard run. Pat McPartland and Max Cepeda also scored for River Dell. Ben Shapiro connected on all five extra points.

Follow Patch on Facebook and Twitter or subscribe to our free daily newsletter.